Tadeusz Banachiewicz

Tadeusz Banachiewicz ( born February 13, 1882 in Warsaw, † November 17, 1954 in Kraków ) was a Polish astronomer, mathematician and surveyor.

Life and work

Banachiewicz studied at Warsaw University and after its closure by the Russians in 1905 in Göttingen, where he met Waclaw Sierpiński. In 1915 he completed his habilitation at the University of Kazan and worked until 1918 as an astronomer at the Observatories of several Russian universities, most recently in Dorpat. After the restoration of Poland, he was in 1918 a professor at the Technical University of Warsaw and a year later at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and director of the local observatory. In 1922 he became a member of the Polska Akademia Umiejętności.

In 1923 he stated in its bulletin his " Cracovian Theory" ( Krakauer calculus ) before, a special kind of matrix algebra, which brought him international recognition. In these " Krakowianen " matrix multiplication is " times column column " carried out according to the rule. Banachiewicz she turned in celestial mechanics. He also provided important works on celestial mechanics, in particular for determining orbits of comets and astronomical perturbation theory.

In 1925 he founded the journal Acta Astronomica. 1932 to 1938 he was Vice President of the International Astronomical Union and also the first President of the Polish Astronomical Society. On November 6, 1939 he was arrested along with other Cracow professors under Promotions Krakow and deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. In 1952 he became a member of the Polska Akademia Nauk. He was an honorary doctorate from the University of Warsaw, Poznan University and in Sofia.

The lunar crater Banachiewicz (crater ) and the asteroid ( 1286) Banachiewicza are named after him.